TJ, you've certainly given me food for thought. I still think you throw the baby out with the bathwater.
More like recognizing by the scripture what the Holy Spirit will be leading us to do and not do.
Do you believe in the gift of healing? Do you believe it is still manifested today? I think you tend to characterize speaking in tongues in error. Like I said, I have witnessed speaking in tongues, but I choose not to do this in public.
And yet Paul said what tongues were for and that it was of other men's lips to speak unto the people. That is all Paul said that God would use tongues for plainly. 1 Corinthians 14:20-21. Verse 20 is like saying, if you only understand one thing about tongues, know this: and he explains what tongues are in verse 21 so that believer that misunderstood what Paul was saying about tongues in that entire chapter would read verse 21 as setting precedent for reading and understanding his words about the actual God's gift of tongues.
But, whenever I have witnessed this, I hear so many saying "Bless you Jesus. Praise Your Holy Name." If they are saying things such as this before and after speaking in tongues, then how do you know they are speaking to the Holy Spirit as YOU say and not exhorting Christ? They sure seem to be Christ-centered before and after tongues.....why not during?
Speaking to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is not the Mediator between God and men to be the One speaking to. The Son of God is called the Bridegroom in how we are to relate to God personally by. By getting to know the Son, we get to know the Father. There is no other way so that believers can avoid false spirits that try to come inbetween us and the Son in relating To God by.
I attended Spirit-filled churches off and on when I was younger. I was never indoctrinated into Spirit-filled worship and thus I can be taught differently. You just haven't made a strong enough case that it is so wrong. Your bias is what comes through. You make assumptions as to whom someone is worshiping. Have you ever even asked who they are thinking of when speaking in tongues?
Some have testified that they are thinking the Spirit can do a better job praying about their needs than they can.
If this is the purpose of prayer John 14:13-14 so that the Father may be glorified in the Son when the Son makes these intercessions and answers these prayers, then the Holy Spirit will not be praying of His own volition when He can only speak what He hears in the first place: John 16:13 This is why the KJV has it right on Romans 8:26-27 because verse 27 is actually testifying of the Son ( Romans 8:34 ) of knowing the mind of the Spirit while the Son is also searching our hearts ( Hebrews 4:12-16) and thus the Spirit is the means by which this intercession is made and yet not directly by the Spirit because it is by the Son knowing the mind of the Spirit. Verse 27 explains how this intercession can be known when with groanings which cannot be uttered hence meaning no sound at all and that is because of verse 27 of the Son knowing the mind of the Spirit as this is accoding to the will of God of the man, Christ Jesus, being the only Mediator between God and man.
So it is not the Spirit's job at all to be making direct intercessions like that. The Son searching our hearts & knowing the mind of the Spirit explains how the Father knows before we ask anything in prayer: Matthew 6:7-8
Therefore if the Father knows before we ask, what need does the Spirit has to say anything by route of tongues as a prayer language? Nothing at all.
Is it not a devil's work to cut inbetween us and the Bridegroom by stealing that personal time with the Lord away from us with babbling nonsense, not knowing what we had prayed for and thus robbing Him of any opportunity of answering our prayers and of receiving our thanks for answering our known prayers?
Better to know what you had prayed for so that when God does answer our prayers, we can give Him thanks.
Now. I disapprove of this "Holy laughter" business(that made my kids cry once...scared them so bad in a church we visited) and I disapprove of applauding God (unbiblical). I understand your concerns and ,while they may be valid, I feel you take it too far. Abuse of the gifts is rampany. No doubt. But you tread mighty close to error yourself.
I'll ask again. Do You believe in the gift of healing and do you believe it is manifested today? And no I am no Benny Hinn fan nor any other circus master.
It is good that the Good Shepherd has led you to discern the holy laughter as not of Him.
Discern more with His help by this:
When people call on the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, He has always answered and always will answer.
If the holy laughter movement is not of God but of the devil, then how is it that when they had called on the Holy Spirit in worship, it was the devil that had answered with signs & lying wonders?
Answer: The Son, Jesus, is the only way to God the Father. John 14:6-7 Climb up any other way is a work of iniquity that denies Him as being that only Mediator between God and man: John 10:1 John 10:7-8
If you are not sure about this reproof, consider this as well:
The holy laughter movement was ecumenical as gathering grapes of thorns & figs of thistles by this broadening of the way in coming to God and so the only way to make that tree good is to narrow the way back to God by relating to Him personally only through the Bridegroom ( Luke 13:24-30 ) so as to avoid these false spirits to eat & drink in their presence with their signs & lying wonders. Otherwise, by ignoring His word in how to approach Him, John 14:6-7, they risk building on that foundation as sand and many houses have been falling in this "holy laughter" movement for broadening the way in suffering a thief to break through: Matthew 7:13-27
Proverbs 25:
26 A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring.
27 It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.
28 He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
1 Corinthians 14:
32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
Calling on the Holy Spirit is a tree that is bearing evil fruits and so by His words, you should know that the route you had taken and gotten what you thought was a good fruit like tongues with no interpretation, He just told you that it is not good because the tree in the way it was sought of the fruit to be received, was not good at all.
The Holy Spirit is God, but it is a work of iniquity by addressing the Spirit and thus dishonouring the Son as being the only way we can come to God the Father by in prayer, fellowship, and worship. Believers need to go before that throne of grace for help in repenting by shunning vain & profane babblings: 2 Timothy 2:16 and relate to God through the Bridegroom as the chaste bride of Christ should before the Bridegroom comes.
